"es ist gar nichts Neues unter der Sonne" (Prediger 1,9). Das gilt auch für die Gefahr, den Weg der Absonderung zu verlassen und sich offenen und unabhängigen Grundsätzen zuzuwenden. Wie man mit ganzen Versammlungen umgehen soll, die das getan haben, darüber schrieb Bruder Hamilton Smith schon 1938 die folgenden sehr aktuellen und beherzigenswerten Worte:
In the case of meetings, that definitely take independent ground, the only course is for the neighbouring meetings to take the matter into godly consideration, and if every protest and appeal is unavailing, to refuse to have further fellowship with the meeting. In a few cases our brethren have been compelled to take this sorrowful course, and hitherto, acting in the truth of the one body and the one Lord, the judgment of the neighbouring meetings has been respected by brethren generally and thus we have been spared the sorrow of further division.
Recently, however, a more serious exercise has arisen inasmuch as cases have occurred of meetings taking independent ground while the neighbouring meetings refuse to take action. Thus there arises a class which while not going to the extreme lengths of independency yet refuse to raise any protest against those who do so. Such take a neutral position and, it is to be feared, under the name of charity fall into the snare of indifferentism, and thus fail in love to their brethren, and faithfulness to the Lord.
This presents difficulties of a more serious nature, for it is evident if those in the immediate neighbourhood of a meeting taking independent ground refuse to act, then those further afield, who desire to retain the truth and act for the Lord's people and the Lord's glory, will, for their own protection, have to act. In so doing they must remember that they are not dealing with an ordinary matter of local discipline but with an abandonment of principle that concerns us all. Thus it would seem the only course, if protests and appeals are unavailing, is to firmly refuse to have fellowship with the independent meeting, in spite of the refusal of the neutrals to take action.
Quelle: An Open Letter On Present Exercises, Juli 1938.